Population One, Act 13: Life in Our Hands
by zoroark09
Summary: A story that takes an unexpected twist from the normal Pokemon games. Originally based on the Pokemon Mystery Dungeon games,the beginning of the story starts off with the main character Erik living as a human. Critiques are requested.


**Project 1: Life in our hands.**

By ~zoroark09

Days...quickly turned into weeks... Maybe even months.  
>Giratina. She could be watching me, even now.<br>"She's toying with me, that's all she's doing" I muttered under my breath in the secluded, narrow cavern. Honestly, I was losing the will to live.  
>"There's gotta be a way out of here. Can't stay here forever!" A growing anxiety seemed to have uplifted my looming depression and convinced me to search.<br>I tried to stay as quiet as I possibly could be; I was really getting used to my new body. It was rather ideal.

Suddenly, My feet gave away, and a searing internal pain was transferred into a visual of some sort.  
>"GRRAAAAHHHH! No... Not again..." Flopping about in the desolate cave, my voice bellowed out as it traveled through.<br>"Get...OUT!"  
>"Z?" There he was, standing before me. The mysterious 'Z' was staring at my hopeless face decorated with a deep scar on my right cheekbone.<br>But something was strange. His body seemed like mine in terms of wear and damage.  
>I was weak, almost crawling to him, begging for assistance. "Z, please... You're my friend."<br>Without taking an expected answer, such as insulting my ability to fight for myself, he, in a sense, did just that.  
>"YOU'RE PATHETIC!" But something was obviously different. He struck me! Grasping my throat and pinning me to the cavern rock, he spat words and deep-red blood at my face. The grip was so intense that I could not speak, but only display my pain by trying to escape.<br>"I thought you were my friend!" With his other hand, he scarred my chest with a strange symbol; all I know about it was that it was complex, AND it hurt. Afterward, with no effort at all, he tossed me onto another stone and placed his foot on my burning, scarred chest. The accompanying fur was infiltrated with dirt and encrusted with dried blood.  
>"Z..." Regaining my voice, I used the last of my energy to speak. "I am your fiend! It's me, ERIK!"<p>

'Z' Shuddered in realization what he had done.  
>...And only thirsted for more.<br>"You are not my friend". He kneeled down to my ears and said something I could never forget.  
>"You never were, and never will be...Because you do not exist."<p>

"Z! NO!" Those words hurt me only more. He abandoned me...again, this time with absolutely no hope left in my spirit.  
>"Don't go! You KNOW ME!"<br>Suddenly, a clear image of black sky subscribed to me. Then quickly, a familiar face came into view.  
>It was 'Z'. I thought he left me for dead. Also this was not a cave. I realized I had enough energy to move my neck ninety degrees, and I saw that this was the black, vitality drained wasteland that me and 'Z' previously traveled through.<br>"So you're finally awake, huh?" I gave some attention to his presence as I got up on my trembling feet. This meeting, he sported a top hat, black and red it was. Bandages were absent; this HAD to be the Zoroark I had first met here in this strange new world.  
>I struggled to find the right words, after everything that had 'happened'. "My illusion left you without a vocal response, has it?" He was right, but...<br>"Illusion? I questioned fully unaware. "So...all of that was fake?" He nodded as if I were correct, tipping his hat back onto his head as it glided down his slick, black hair.  
>"Thank goodness!" He could have been expecting this, but I hugged him. Unexpectedly, he approved of this action as I shed near-bloody tears of relief and happiness.<br>"I'm so sorry" Was I hallucinating? HE apologized to ME! Nevertheless, I savored this moment, embracing him, another living being who WASN'T trying to kill me "I should have told you I was going to try and do this, give you the worst case scenario of being alone. I'm sorry." Upon a repeated apology, he shook me off in a gentle fashion.  
>"Thanks." That was my only response, a simple one. "But shouldn't we be moving?"<br>"Smart man. Yeah, let's get going" He KNEW I was serious now. Friends are always a touchy, sensitive subject with me, and the previous 'illusion' taught me to treasure my friends, though I never had any.  
>I got lost in thought and noticed 'Z' had been advancing, almost as if was telling me to follow him.<br>And I did, obviously. But if he was 'telling' me to accompany him, that could tell me that he wanted me to come with him! I followed him at a side, and looked into his eye, which was darting around like crazy.  
>"But Z..." My thoughts did not interfere with my own advances. "He is a true friend. I mean, he saved my life. Could have done it a bit sooner, but then again-"<br>"Can I ask you something?" 'Z' Our advances didn't stop, but I focused on his regards.  
>"No need to ask" I felt a little intimidated now, as it showed in my voice a bit.<br>"Erik, is it?" He began. "Don't think any less of me because of this, but i'm asking...  
>Do you see me as a friend?"<br>"W-What are you asking, of course I do! If you were trying to toughen me up, and it worked, note that, you clearly have the best interest for me, as I do you."  
>For a good few miles, the terrain was flat, dead ground. No need to worry about obstacles. Or at least, obstacles that we could see.<br>'Z' tilted his head down, taking his nice hat off of it. "The reason I ask...  
>...Is because. Well, you know this world is almost free of Pokémon. "<br>"Almost?" I kept the thought wary as I continued to listen.  
>No one is here, and no one can avoid the feeling of desolation and fear."<br>"So you're scared like me?"  
>Upon suggesting, he acted as if he was insulted "...I'll let that one go. But yeah, i'll admit that I am a little afraid of what will happen to me, as well as the others...who are out there, somewhere."<br>"So...?"

An excessive conversation ensued, but none of it was noteworthy, really. I told 'Z' that I was a human before all of this, as well as my adventures in the seemingly doomed human world.

"So, you say you were- Excuse me, ARE a human, who got, heh. I wanna say it all; I was listening so well!" He began to list everything I had told him in chronological order, including the little stories I shared regarding my life BEFORE Hoenn.

I also asked about him, seeing as how it would be rude of me if I didn't. Not too much information was relinquished, but I DID learn that he has a few friends who reside close.

"Well, not my friends." He said responding to a question I asked regarding the 'others'.  
>"Actually, I guess I could say we're all enemies now; we're all different, and, rather than getting along and accepting differentiability, we spawn wars, which is a minor cause of the elegy we have now."<p>

Soon enough, I realized that hours passed us by, although there was no sun to make shadows of things. However, not everything in this world had to be necessarily malicious.  
>An empty field of flowers and a sense of safety lied before me and 'Z', who continued toward the seemingly care-free environment that kept me wondering.<p> 


End file.
